Improving my horses walk

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MontyZoom5

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Right, so lately my horse has forgotten how to walk it seems.
His trot and canter is absolutely perfect! It's soft, supple, round, balanced, it's the nicest thing I've ever sat on but his walk is wobbly, very slow, he can't walk straight, or, actually no he can do all that on a loose rein but he will not do it when I have a contact and he will not walk properly on an outline. I was wandering if anyone has any little exercises to help improve my horses walk to more balanced, flowing walk. He also falls out through the right shoulder a huge amount in walk but not at all in trot or canter and he just will not go straight, at all!
I don't think he's in pain, got his teeth checked not long ago, saddler is coming V soon but he's absolutely perfect in trot and canter and he will happily and easily jump 1.50m.
The only thing I can think of is because I have done a lot of lateral movements with him lately (leg yield, shoulder in, turn on the forehand, rein back) and I think that has affected his walk some how? Has this happened to anyone before? It might sound a bit bizarre, but thanks so much for your help in advance!
 
I'd get him checked out first (hocks and back).

Have you changed any tack? Started riding differently? Are you sitting evenly?

If my horse couldn't walk straight I probably wouldn't be jumping 1.50 - got to walk before we run!

Go right back to basics - walking through two parallel poles and cones on the floor, then trotting through them etc.

When you say he won't 'walk properly in an outline', what do you mean exactly? If he's not warmed up, relaxed and moving forward then he won't be working correctly. An outline isn't a head position, it's the overall movement and picture.
 
What is his walk like when you hack out? Can you get a nice swinging purposeful walk out and about..if you can then maybe not a biomechanical problem but a lack of interest in a schooling session?
 
I think laziness is more apparent at walk. My horse is prone to totally switching off at walk in the arena, and he has one of the best walks I've seen! Try polework at walk?
 
I have the same problem as pigeon- my ex racer has a massive walk, but only when he feels like it! My trainer makes me walk him on a longer rein than I feel I need, as when you're trying to hard to get the contact you can restrict the walk as such - made a difference for us anyway!
 
Fergus has been known to express attitude and lack of straightness problems in walk while seeming fine in other paces too. If you heighten their reactions to the leg for lateral work, you can make them hypersensitive and then lose the ability to keep them going forward into the hand because they're too busy swinging out instead. And the attitude issue is the same for us - if he gets hyped up and I can't keep my leg on, he comes back at me instead of rolling forward into the contact as he does (or should do!) in trot and canter when I do succeed in getting it on...
 
His walk when we back out is perfect! Straight and forward..in defo think lack of interest is an issue.. He gets really into it when we trot and canter but walking wise he just seems bored and drifts to the side doesn't walk forward etc
 
Forgot to mention - my boys an ex racer too, that's the thing that worried me because he does have a massive walk but lately he has decided to do pigeon steps and not walk straight :) I'll defo do more of that, thank you
 
Try only walking into a contact (quite a stretchy long/low frame to start) out on hacks and see if that works. I agree letting them stretch down a bit if they start to get choppy helps! And generally just make the walk more interesting by introducing walk pirouette, turn on forehand, volte, rein back etc etc. You can put out cones for bending and ground poles so that you're not just wandering along too much. Wandering gives my guy time to think and decide there's other things he would rather be doing lol!!
 
A fab tip I got from a girl who does Trec to a very high level to get a forward walk (to help with control of paces), is to take my feet out of the stirrups, long rein, put my leg on alternate sides as the horses hindleg comes forward (right leg on when right hind comes forward, left leg on when left hind comes forward), so you are sort of swinging your legs with the horses movement if that makes sense. I was amazed how much difference it made. Once we had this nailed I began to make the aids a bit more subtle, feet in stirrups, reins shorter etc. My lad still has a natural slow amble if left to his own devices but at least we both know he can walk 'bigger' now and he does respond when I ask like this.
 
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